In the moment
by The Green Lady
Summary: Seventeen year old Albus Dumbledore and his two younger siblings share a peaceful moment together during that fateful summer...


_Author's note- This fell into my head like half an hour ago and I just wrote it up now. I'd really like to write a whole bunch on the Dumbledore family. They would be so much fun to write for- but for now I'll keep working on FHNWFL. If anyone has any suggestions though of something short to write (like a scene or something) that concerns the Dumbledore's, let me know and I'd be happy to write it up if I can. :D_

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**In the moment**

"_Ah, music. A magic beyond all we do here!" –Dumbledore. 'The Philosopher's Stone'_

Seventeen year old Albus Dumbledore was on his hands and knees as he attempted to clean out a stubborn spot in the large kitchen oven. So far it had repelled the toughest of magical spells and he was just starting to wonder if it was ever going to come out at all despite the capacious amounts of cleaning supplies he had used on it and tried to scrub out by hand.

There were heavy footsteps behind him and he didn't need to turn around to know that it was his younger brother.

"What're you doing?"

He lifted his head and turned around to stare up at his wiry teenage brother. "Cleaning."

Aberforth seemed to be chewing his tongue as he stared intently at his older brother.

"Where is he?"

He knew who his brother was talking about. Only one person had been over the house since he had arrived to take over his deceased mother's job of caring for Ariana. Albus knew that Aberforth hated his friend, but why the hatred ran so deep he could only guess. To guess however made him afraid because he knew that it would force him to look inside himself for the answer. So he ignored it instead of trying to hear the truth.

"Gellert went to see the coast today with his great aunt. She thought he'd like to see it, and since she has relatives there…"

But Aberforth had already turned away and was not paying attention.

Albus frowned as he stood up, wiping his hands on an old dishtowel. "Why are you so dirty?"

"I was feeding the goats." Aberforth said stubbornly.

Albus fought back a smile. His younger brother had been using that defiant tone with everyone since the day he had first learned to speak. He watched as Aberforth went over to sit beside Ariana whose blonde hair was falling in front of her face as she sat there colouring at the long wooden table.

She had been quite fond of colouring since their mother had died. It was a quiet activity that seemed to keep her calm and happy so Albus encouraged it and hung up her finished pictures on the wall so that everyone could see them.

But 'everyone' only consisted of him and Aberforth. Ariana knew of no one else with the exception of Gellert and he had only spared Ariana's pictures a withering glance before turning back to more important things. Albus had the feeling Ariana didn't like Gellert either. She had only come in on them once when Gellert and him were pouring over some old papers and Gellert had given her such a sharp look for disturbing them she had never come in to interrupt them again. Though he never spoke of Ariana in front of Gellert he occasionally felt twinges of guilt as he occasionally heard her crying upstairs over something and Aberforth trying to calm her down while he and Gellert continued going over their books and notes.

But now Ariana sat there colouring away, the summer sun streaming in through the dirt-flecked windows that Albus had pulled the curtains back on in an attempt to let more light into the gloomy house. Aberforth sat himself down beside her and pushed a strand of her hair out of her face before asking her gently, "What're you colouring?"

She held up her picture to him and Albus saw it was a rather crude attempt of a goat.

Aberforth frowned as he looked at it. "What is it?"

"I think it's a goat." said Albus as he strode over to stand beside them both. "Is that right Ariana?"

She nodded furiously and he smiled as he took the picture from Aberforth and examined it more closely.

"Well their extraordinarily hard animals to draw but you've done an excellent job on the hooves."

Ariana tugged the paper from him and resumed colouring, humming quietly to herself.

Albus and Aberforth listened to their younger sister without moving or even breathing. Ariana hardly ever spoke since their mother's death and usually the only times she uttered a sound these days was when she was screaming or sobbing at the top of her lungs. To hear her pleasantly humming to herself, like today was something of a rare gift.

After a few moments, Albus realized that he recognized the tune Ariana was humming. It was one of his mother's favorites- one she used to sing to all her children as a lullaby before they drifted off to sleep.

Slowly he began to hum along. Aberforth glared at him but Ariana did not look up from her drawing. He turned around to get back to work when he spied the old piano in the dark corner.

No one had played the piano in ages. It had always sat there in that same corner, acquiring dust as it was used to stack papers and books on, but he drew his wand and pointed it at the piano.

The dust rose off the keys in a thick cloud and the lid pushed itself back, exposing yellowing ivory keys. With another wave of his wand, the keys started to play their mother's lullaby by themselves and Aberforth and Ariana both looked up at the piano in shock. Albus watched Ariana's eyes widen fearfully. She was still terrified of magic and very wary of anything her brothers did concerning it. Wondering if he had overdone it, he watched anxiously as his younger sister's tense shoulders slowly started to relax and after a little while she slipped off her chair to approach the piano.

With another furious look at his brother, Aberforth got off his chair as well and joined her, his hand resting protectively on her shoulder as she cautiously stepped closer to the piano. Slowly, she began to smile and she turned to Aberforth, pointing at the piano.

"I know," he said gruffly. "I see it."

She clapped her hands together and stood there watching the piano play itself before extracting herself from Aberforth's grip and started to slowly spin around.

Albus's smile widened as Ariana spun about, her skirt billowing around her thin, ghostly white legs, twirling round and round. And then, something else happened that made Albus's spirits soar even higher. Aberforth began to smile too and a few seconds later he grabbed Ariana's bird-thin hands and started to dance with her.

Albus couldn't stop himself from laughing at the sight of his two spinning siblings. With another wave of his wand, he increased the tempo to the song on the piano so that it would match their fast spinning better. He stored his wand back in his robes and as he turned to go back to his cleaning he heard gentle footsteps come padding up behind him before feeling a sharp tugging at his sleeve.

He turned to see his blonde haired sister looking up at him hopefully- she tugged his sleeve again.

"You want me to dance with you?"

She nodded and he allowed himself to be pulled over to where Aberforth was, a smile still lingering on his usually sullen face. Ariana took his hand and put it in Aberforth's before grabbing their other free hands so that the three siblings made a sort of ring between themselves. With a large, wild grin she began to run in Abeforth's direction and the two brothers were forced to move so that in no time at all they were all spinning to the music, their hands all tightly connected as they laughed, spinning faster and faster...

And Albus forgot everything. He forgot all the wearisome responsibilities that lay on his shoulders- responsibilities that seemed to have no end, he forgot about his mother's death that had disrupted their entire family, he forgot about the rising tensions concerning his brother and Gellert and for once- he lived in the moment.


End file.
